Automatic cotton packer



March 31. 1925.

C. C. KRUEGER AUTOMATIC COTTON PACKER Filed March 19 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet1 INVENTOR.

' ATTORNEY.

March 31, 1925.

C. C. KRUEGER AUTOMATIC COTTON PACKER 7 Filed March 19, 1924 2Sheets-Sheet 2 INVEXITQR. ZZZ. Armger ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 31, 1925 UNIT En: Sfl-ZATES PA CAB/L Cv KRUEGE'R, OF SANANTONIO, TEXAS, ASS IGNOR TQ SAN.ANTO'NIO & SUPPL 00., or sm ANTONIO,TEXAs; Aeo ep qn AUTOMATIC common PAcnER.

Application fi1ed:March 19, 182%; Serial No. 70.938 9 To all. whom it;may concern:

Be itknownthat LCARL G. Knunonn, a; citizen of. the United States,residing at San Antonio in the county of Bexar; and};

State of Texas have invented certaininew and useful l mprovementsinAutomatic Cotton Packers of.- which the following is a specification,reference beingv had to the ac companying drawings.

This invention relates. to automatic cotton packers of the characterdisclos'edin the patent. granted to Georgel/V. Cameron, Patent #nisasei,June, 1916.

One of the objects of; the present, invention is to provide means forautomatically braking the feeder. which feeds the cotton. into thepacking box and. beneath the plunger or ram..

A further object is to provide means for automatically shifting the beltwhich operates this. feeding mechanism sothat when the brake is appliedto the pulley which drives this feedingmechanism the;belt will I thebrake is removed thebelt will be shifted into operative engagement withthe pulley.

A further object is to provide a construction of this character in whichthe braking,

action is automatic. and controlled by the plunger or ram of the packerwhereby said belt shifting anda'utomatic brakingyaction is 'caused tooccur intermittently.

A further object is to provide a construc.- tion of this character whichis very simple, may be readily applied and will not be liable to get outof order.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the panying drawings wherein:.

Figure 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of a cotton tramper having myimproved. automatic belt shifting and braking mech- 4 anisni appliedthereto;

Figure 2 's a fragmentary front elevation f the construction shown inFigure 1;

Figure 3 is a sectional view through the fast and loose pulleys to showthe brake 50 shoe in section;

. Figure 4 is a section on the line 4-4; of

grantedon the 27th. day of be shifted. away from thepulley and when.rock shaft 19 which carries. extending arm 20, adjacent one. end:andJtjo Figure 1, the feeding mechanism; beingshown in.elwafcion Eigure5' 's a fragmentary front; elevation,

of thecontrolling.mechanism;

Figuredis: a fragmentary top plan view ofthelink21; and itspivotedsupport22.

Referring to these drawings, A and. B.

designate the] longitudinal beams of longi tudinah supporting. sills ofacotton packer these sills being parallel to each other but spaced fromeach other by's uitable tnanS I verse braces. These sills. are;supported; by. vertica members C d] D and; moun ed? 1 .0 1. the r a cm.18. D is the. feeding hopper, E of the. cotton packer. This hope perfeeds into the-- packer? box; F of. the packerinany, ordinary-10rusualmanner and; at this end there"; is a. feeding roll 10 dis.- posed;within the hopper which extends out through hopper, one end of, theshaftcarryingupon it. the sprocket wheel;l1..; Mounted upon an.

upright Gr forming part of the frameofth'e;

machine is a drive shaft. 12 carrying: a sprocket wheel, 1.3 and. overthis sprocket E, the} shale. of. the ends; of the wheel passes asprocket chain 14.; WlllGlIfBX-j' tends arounch the sprocket wheel; 11,thus thesprocket wheel 11, and thefeeding roller are driven. fromatheshaft 1 2. Mounted up:

on the shaft 12' is a fast pulley 15 and.

disposed. also. upon this shaft and. imme-i diately adjacent the pulley15 is a loose pulley l6. Passing; either over thepulley 15. of. theloose pulley 16 is a belt. 17 which extends downward; from a power shaftmounted in'an'y, suitable manner, this. shaft" I not beingshown'. IMounted in. bearings 18, on the. under faces of the longitudinal beams Aand-JB. is. a

which is pivoted the-link 211" This. link at its opposite end. extendsinto aiposition contiguous to the vertically inovable' plunger andplunger. guide of the tramper-"an'dis pivoted to aflever'22. whicheXteiids dow-n pivotally connected, as at 23, tothefplate 24.. The-link21 at-its end. which is "pivoted to the lever 22 is formed, toiprolvidea stir the up-wardly ward and away from the link 21 and is rup,.-bend-.-25. and in this. stirrup-a roller 26 is supported, this roller beingdisposed in such position as to be engaged by a vertically movablefinger 27 bolted to the footof the guide post 28 which guides theplunger-or ram. On the upward movement of the plunger the beveled end ofthe finger 27 is forced against the roller 26 causing an-upward andinward movement of the roller and of the rod 21, thus causing anoscillation of the rock shaft 19 in one direction.

Attached to the upper extremity of the arm 20 is a contractile spring 29which tends to pull this arm 20 over toward the left in Figure 5. Theextremity of the rock shaft 19 remote from the contractile spring 29 isangularly bent, as at 30, so that'this angular arm so formed extendsupward and outward. Operatively connected to the extremity of thisangular arm is a longitudinally shiftable rod 31, whose end remote fromthe ex tremity of the arm'20 is shiftably mounted in a bracket 32mounted upon the adjacent post cillated inone direction or the other therod 31 will be longitudinally shifted in one directionor the other. Thisrod 31 carries upon it'the two upwardly extending spacedv belt shiftingfingers 33 which engage the belt 17. When the rod'3l is shifted in onedirection the belt will be shifted onto the loose pulley and whenshifted in a reverse direction the belt will be carried onto the fixedpulley.

Mounted in bearings upon the'upper faces of the sills A and B is atransverse rock shaft 34: which carries intermediate its ends thedownwardly extending arm 35 which is shaft 34: will be oscillated.- Thisrock shaft carries upon it and operatively connected to it the brakeshoe 38 which is adapted to be applied to the fixed pulley 15. In otherwords, when the rock shaft 34 is oscillated in one direction the brakewill be applied to the fixed pulley and when it is oscillated in theother direction the brake will be relieved from the fixed pulley. Thelower extremity of the arm 35 has attached thereto one end of acontractile spring 39, the other end of which is attached to anysuitable point of support as, for instance, one of the transverse beams,and this spring acts to urge the rock shaft into a direction which willcarry the brake shoe against the face of the pulley.

The operation of this invention is as fol lows: lVhile thecotton isbeing fed into the press box before the plunger is lowered, the belt 17is engaged with the fast pulley 15. Under these. circumstances, ofcourse, the plunger is raised as well as the plunger guide and as aconsequence the beveled end C. Thus as the rock shaft 19 is osof thefinger 27 has borne against the roller 26 and forced the link 21 overtoward the right. This carries the arm 30 over toward the right butshifts the rod 31 so that the fingers 33 carry the belt inengagementwith the fixed pulley 15, thus driving the feeding mechanism through theshaft 12 and the sprocket chain 14. As soon as the plunger movesdownward, however, andthe finger 27 has released the roller 26, thesprings 29 and 39 act to oscillate the shaft 19 to the left and shaft 34to the right. This movement of the shaft 19 acts to shift the rod 31 soas to carry the fingers toward the left in Figure 1 and shift thebelt:17 from the tight to the loose pulley and at the same time theoscillation of the shaft 34 applies the brake shoe to the fast pulley,stopping-the feed ing mechanism immediately so that no cotton is fedfrom the hopper into the press box while the plunger is descending. Theparts will remain in this position until the plunger again ascends,whereupon the beveled end of the finger 27 engages the roller 26, shiftsthe arm 21 to the right and again applies the belt to the fast pulleyand releases the. brake and thus causes the driving of the feedingmechanism. It will be seen that this shifting of the belt and of thebrake is automatic in its action and is entirely produced by theintermittent up and down movement of the packing plunger. Thus the beltshifting and braking action is entirely under control of the plunger orram of the packer and occurs intermittently whenever the packing plungerrises or lowers. WVhile I have illus trated certain details ofconstruction and arrangement of parts which are particularly designedfor use with the Cameron packer, forming the subject-matter of Patent#1,188,894, I do not wish to be limited thereto as it is obvious thatmany changes .might be made in these details of construction and thearrangement of parts in order to fit the mechanism to other cottonpackers without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forthin the appended claims.

I claim 1. A device of the characterdescribed comprising areciprocatable plungena rotatable feeding member delivering in advanceof the thrust of the plunger, means for driving the feeding memberincluding fast and loose pulleys, a driving belt for the fast and loosepulleys, an oscillating belt shifter operatively engaged with the belt,a brake movable toward and fronithe fast pulley, and means operated by apredetermined ascent of the plunger acting to shift the belt from theloose to the fast pulley and release the brake and upon a predetermineddescent of the plunger acting to shift the beltto the loose pulley andapply the brake.

2. A device of the character described III comprising a reciprocatableplunger, a rotatable feeding member delivering in advance ofthe thrustof the plunger, means for driving the feeding member including a shaft,fast and loose pulleys mounted upon the shaft and a belt coactingtherewitln'a rock shaft, a brake shoe operatively connected to the rockshaft and coacting with the fast pulley, a longitudinally shiftable beltshift-- ing rod having belt shifting fingers engag- .ing the belt, therock shaft being operatively connected to the shifting rod to cause areciprocation of the shifting rod in a direct-ion to carry the belt fromthe fast to the loose pulley upon a rocking motion of the rock shaft torelease the brake, means yieldingly holding the rock shaft in positionto apply the brake, and means operatively connected toand verticallyreeiprocable with the plunger for rocking the shaft in a direction torelease the brake and cause a movement of the shifting rod to a positionto apply the belt.

3. A device of the character described comprising a reciprocatingplunger, a rotatable feeding member delivering in advance of the thrustof the plunger, means for driving the feeding member including a shaft,fast and loose pulleys mounted upon the shaft, a belt coacting with thetramp'er, a rock shaft extending at right angles to the axis of thefirst named shaft, a brake shoe operatively carried by the rock shaftand adapted to engage the fast pulley, the rock shaft at its extremitybeing angularly bent, a longitudinally reciprocatable rod operative-lyconnected at one end to the angular end of the rock shaft andreciprocatable thereby, belt engaging fingers mounted upon the rod, asecond rock shaft, a brake shoe .arried thereby, operative connectionsbetween the first and second rock shafts whereby they may simultaneouslyoscillate, a member vertically movable with the plunger and having abeveled extremity, an arm on the first named rock shaft, a linkoperatively pivoted to said arm, means engageable by the upper end ofthe beveled extremity whereby the link may be drawn in one direction tocause the oscillation of the rock shaft in the same direction, therelease of said brake and the shifting of the belt to the fast pulleyupon an upward movement of the plunger,

and springs resisting an oscillation of the rock shafts and urging therock shafts to a position where the brake is unapplied and the belt isshifted onto the loose pulley.

4. A device of the character described comprising a reciprocatingplunger, a feed ing member delivering in advance of the thrust of theplunger and means for driving the feeding member including a shaft, fastand. loose pulleys applied thereto and a belt coacting therewith, a rockshaft extending transversely to the pulley shaft and having shaft in onedirection, a spring causing the oscillation of the rock shaft in theopposite direction, a longitudinally shiftable shipper rod operativelyconnected to the other of said arms of said belt shifting fingers, asecond rock shaft, a brake shoe carried thereby and engageable with thefast pulley, and an arm mounted on the second rock. shaft andoperatively connected to the first named rock shaft to rock therewith.

5. A device of the character described comprising a reciprocatingplunger, a feed ing member delivering in advance of the thrust of theplunger, a driving shaft therefor having fast and loose pulleys mountedthereon and a belt coacting with the fast and loose pulleys, a rockshaft; extending transversely of the driving shaft and having radiallyextending arms on its opposite ends, a link pivotally connected to oneof said arms and extending toward the plunger and angularly bent at itsendto form a roller supporting yoke, a member mounted upon the plungerrod and having an inclined upper end adapted lever adjacent the plungerpivotally supported at one end and at its other end pivotally engagedwith said link, a spring engaged with one of the rock shaft in adirection-to carry the yoke, away from the plunger, a 'slidingly mountedshipper rod operatively connected to the other of said arms andreciprocated thereby and having a pair of belt-engaging fingers, asecond rock shaft extending parallel to the first named rock shaft andhaving a depending arm, an arm on the first named rock shaft, a linkconnecting the two arms, and a brake shoe mounted on the second namedrock shaft and engaging the fast pulley.

6. A device of the character described including a plunger,- inadvance-of the plunger, mounted within the hopper, a driving shafttherefor operatively geared thereto and mounted upon the frame, saidshaft extending parallel to the frame, fast and loose pulleys mountedupon the shaft, a belt coactin therewith, means for shifting the beltfrom the fast pulley to the loose pulley upon the downward movementof'the plunger and from the loose pulley to the fast pulley upon theupward movement of the plunger comprising a transverse rock shaft havingan arm, a lever pivotally mounted at one end and disposed adjacent theplunger, a link to engage said roller, .a

rock shaft and carrying arms and urging the a hopper discharging a afeeding roller.

pivoted at one end to saicl lever and at its other end to said arm andhaving a roller supporting yoke, a member movable with the plunger andhaving a beveled upper end adapted to engage the roller of the yoke toshift the link in one direction to thereby oscillate the shaft, beltshifting means oper-- atively connected to said transverse shaft,

a brake, brake operated means operatively supporting the brake inposition opposite the fast pulley, and means operatively connecting saidbrake operating means with said rock shaft.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix any signature.

CARL C; KRUEGER.

